CHIBUIKE CHUKWU
According to global terrorism index as obtained by our correspondent, never was Nigerians terrorised like under former President Muhammadu Buhari.
For instance, in October of 2018 and as obtained by this newspaper, Global Terrorism Index estimated that Fulani militants killed about 1,700 persons from January to September 2018, six times more than the number killed by the bloodthirsty Boko Haram Islamist sect throughout that year.
If 2018 is far back, what of the 2022 report of Jihad Analytics, a consultancy company which processes data on global and cyber jihad, which put Nigeria ahead of Iraq as the country with the highest attack by the Islamic State terrorists?
In the report as obtained, Nigeria then had the highest number of attacks by the Islamic State (IS). According to the report, half of the attacks claimed by IS since the beginning of 2022 were in Africa, while the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), an affiliate of IS, is now more active in Nigeria than before.
That data by Jihad Analytics showed that while Nigeria then recorded a total of 162 IS operations since January 2022, Iraq had recorded 120.
Ironically, all these happened under the president that came with so much fanfare and avowed commitment to tackle insecurity, economy and other problems headlong.
From the time Buhari assumed office, he showed lack of ability and competence to manage the diverse challenges in Nigeria. He was withdrawn from the realities in Nigeria as he made constant travels his mainstay as against tackling threatening economic and security challenges that reduced lives to nothing under his watch.
For example, Buhari showed no minute interest in domestic affairs, as he continually embarked on one international trip or the other at the detriment of Nigerians.
At one point towards the winding down of his first tenure, Buhari travelled to Sochi, Russia, for a three-day summit on gas and trade, and very unfortunate was the fact that, that very trip coincided with a week when persistent reports of killings, robbery, banditry, kidnapping, disasters and economic depression at home, was commonplace. It was a week when thousands were killed in Southern Kaduna, a development that made international headlines, but the then president embarked on that trip to the surprise of so many Nigerians who then viewed his decision as utter disregard to the psyche and feelings of Nigerians. Buhari made international travel a pet project. In the first four years of his first tenure, he was outside the country for a combined 511 days.
His appetite for adventure just in his first term in office took him to countries such as China, India, Jordan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Chad, France, Turkey, Poland, Malta, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Ghana. Others are Cameroon, the Gambia, Niger Republic, Mali, Qatar, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Togo, Republic of Benin, Germany, Senegal, Ethiopia, Egypt and Kenya, among others.
To Nigerians, Buhari was an unfortunate dummy sold to Nigerians by the then power-hungry All Progressives Congress (APC); he was sent as breeding scorpion that later stung even its owner as exemplified by the massive rejection of the former president whose policies led to total collapsed of the country, with attendant pains felt across party lines.
To Nigerians, it was either the former president was withdrawn from the reality in Nigeria, perhaps as a result of what he was fed with by his media aides, or he was incompetent and thus lacked the requisite capacities to effect changes.
Meanwhile, more worrisome, according to commentators, is that the same trait of absent-mindedness shown by Buhari has resonated under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The former Lagos State governor, since his inauguration on May 29, has not shown demonstrable commitment to the affairs of Nigeria with emphasis on clear-cut policies that have had direct and positive impacts on the lives of Nigerians.
But if those months since his inauguration could be forgiven, what could be the defence of those packaging the president after his New Year address to Nigerians failed to show him as someone who has the full grasp of the realities in Nigeria? What can they say about a new year message that merely resonated the failed Buhari era replete with non-empathy and policy direction to inspire hope in the citizens already disillusioned by the very government that anchored its mantra on Renewed Hope?
The presidential address was coming six days after the country was thrown into mourning following unprovoked attack on some villages in Plateau State which left almost two hundred Nigerians dead and, according to analysts, what could be more devastating, tragic and concerned to the president than supervising a country where such number of citizens were murdered in cold blood on the day the victims were celebrating the Christmas festivities?
Apart from the hardship induced by President Tinubu’s not-well-thought-out economic policies, the major challenges facing Nigeria today is insecurity which perhaps got to a head in that December 25 massacre of innocent villagers on the Plateau, which has continued to gain both local and international attention. But never was it a source of concern to the president.
However, on what looked like a reality in the message, the president reminded Nigerians of the hardship they are going through presently:
“I am not oblivious to the expressed and sometimes unexpressed frustrations of my fellow citizens. I know for a fact that some of our compatriots are even asking if this is how our administration wants to renew their hope.
“Dear Compatriots, take this from me: the time may be rough and tough, however, our spirit must remain unbowed because tough times never last. We are made for this period, never to flinch, never to falter.
“The socio-economic challenges of today should energize and rekindle our love and faith in the promise of Nigeria. Our current circumstances should make us resolve to work better for the good of our beloved nation. Our situation should make us resolve that this new year 2024, each and every one of us will commit to be better citizens.”
But juxtaposing the above excerpt from his New Year address with the reality, the rascality and opulence that have been displayed by Tinubu recently seem to mock the majority of Nigerians who are currently bearing the brunt of his inordinate economic policies.
For example, while going to mosque on December 29 in Lagos, the president, in a state he once governed with residents embodying hunger, want and deprivation on their faces, the president displayed opulence with over a hundred exotic vehicles on his convoy, a move some stakeholders have said was to mock Nigerians.
The obviously deprived Lagosians who should ordinarily be expected to identify with ‘one of the their own’, expressed their displeasure at the president, yelling at the top of their voices in Yoruba “Ebi npa wa o”, meaning “We are hungry,” as his large convoy drove by.
According to a human rights activist who spoke to our correspondent from Abia State, Kalu Awa, Tinubu is obviously not in tune with reality.
“Tinubu is like Buhari; he doesn’t know what Nigerians are going through. I watched that video of him in Idumota and it is very unfortunate that in a state he once governed, he could show such wealth when Nigerians are suffering.
“If he is doing well, he should be able to relate with them and does not even need such security to go through where he belongs. It is certain that Tinubu has failed in his less than one year in power,” Awa said.
Refusing to hail him as the normal tradition, the residents kept decrying their hardships and pains believed to have been caused by the government. They were heard in a viral video complaining about the number of the president’s convoy amid the widespread hunger in the country.
Just like his New Year speech, the arrogant display of riches and affluence by the president on December 29 was coming just days after the Plateau killings and, according to commentators, if there was anything the president could have done, it was to play low in tune with the mood of the nation over the killings, then declare national mourning and perhaps have all flags at national places fly at half-mast instead of going about with pride and affluence even when a part of the country was burning.
This is the position of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS). The student body’s Senate President, Ekundina Elvis, said the association expressed concern that “ever since the news of the killings came, we find it highly embarrassing that the murderers are yet to be identified, arrested, and prosecuted in a law court.
“It is more disturbing that no concrete step has been taken by the government to honour the memories of those that were killed.
“As an association, we want to say that enough condolence visitations by our ruling class. The government must make concerted efforts towards the protection of lives and property of the Nigerian people.
“We charge the Federal Government to declare a day of national mourning while the Nigerian flag at all levels is flown at half mast,” the statement said.
The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said the president’s insensitive attitude has tended to give alibi to the terrorists, blaming the killings on the government’s lack of tact to safeguard the citizens.
Debo Ologunagba, the PDP image maker, said such attitude by the president had led to the killing of no fewer than 5,000 Nigerians since he took office on May 29, 2023.
“President Tinubu has practically abdicated his constitutional role as President and Commander in-Chief which is principally to ensure the security of lives and property thus abandoning Nigerians to terrorists, bandits and marauders.
“Nigerians will recall how President Tinubu in his nationwide broadcast of July 31, 2023 had no words of commitment for security despite the escalated killing of over 500 Nigerians and many more abducted in Plateau, Benue, Niger, Kaduna and other states of the federation at that time,” the PDP said.
The Labour Party (LP) also accused Tinubu of being insensitive in his New Year message.
In reaction, the LP said like most right-thinking Nigerians, it is appalled by the hollowness of Mr Tinubu’s New Year speech, which failed to address contemporary issues confronting the country.
It said the speech was a display of hypocrisy, deceit and lack of empathy.
“If anything, the speech conveyed to Nigerians the high level of hypocrisy, deceit and lack of empathy which has become the guiding principle of the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration which Tinubu leads,” the party said.
It further stated that, “It is depressing to note that the president and his handlers didn’t deem it fit to include a word of comfort for the families of over 200 persons killed by terrorists during the Christmas eve massacre in Plateau State. What a shame.”
The party alleged that Mr Tinubu’s helplessness in the face of his glaring failure to address the critical issue of insecurity, decayed infrastructure, collapse of the manufacturing and productive sectors, inflation and the Naira to Dollar exchange rate which is spiraling out of control is written all over the speech.
The LP noted that most disturbing was the president’s false claim that, “everything I have done in office, every decision I have taken and every trip I have undertaken outside the shores of our land, since I assumed office on 29 May 2023, have been done in the best interest of our country.
“What a despicable form of deceit,” it said, querying how Mr Tinubu’s ill-advised decision on fuel subsidy removal without a plan to ameliorate the sufferings of Nigerians translates to an action taken in the national interest.
“Of what benefit were the millions of the nation’s dwindling foreign reserves frittered away under the guise of attending the climate change summit in Dubai to Nigerians? The statement noted.
An Owerri-based rights lawyer, Okechukwu Atani, while in a chat with our correspondent, however said but for missing the Plateau killings, the speech by the president was in order and captured the current issues in the country.
“I think Nigerians are right when they said the president failed to talk more on the Plateau killings because that is to me the major thing being discussed right now.
“But with the exception of that, I think the speech by the president was in order and he tried as much as possible to capture the major issues like economy and hardship Nigerians are going through.
“The main thing is that, like we all used to say, ‘talk is cheap’. We expect Mr. President to tackle all those problems he listed because it is not about enumerating the problems but about tackling them because Nigerians are going through hard times,” he said.
Reno Omokri, former presidential aide, while reacting to the New Year message, said the speech was silent on sacrifices being made by the ruling class as a result of the economic downturn.
Omokri wrote on his X page:
“What was missing from President Bola Tinubu’s New Year’s Day broadcast to the nation was sacrifice.
“Yes, he admitted that the economy was tottering when he took over on May 29, 2023, and he has had to make difficult decisions that have been telling on the Nigerian people, and has resulted in an inflation rate of 28%. But where is his own sacrifice? And that of his government?
“It is not enough for him to ask us to play our parts. We must first see that the government is living up to its commitments.
“When a country faces economic challenges, the leadership cannot expect the people to make sacrifices without first making them. What I expected to hear from the president was, for example, that:
“All jets in the Presidential Air Fleet have been sold except two. All foreign travel by public and civil servants have been embargoed, except where they are strictly in the national interest, and must first be approved by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, if they are civilians, or the National Security Adviser, if they are military and paramilitary personnel.
“All Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government are hereby directed to purchase made-in-Nigeria goods and services exclusively, and it will be a dismissible offence for any MDA to patronise a foreign good or service where there is a Nigerian alternative.
“The Legislature and Judiciary are advised to take the same course.
Forthwith, the Federal Government shall not participate in sponsoring, subsidising, or supporting pilgrimages, whether by Muslim or Christian pilgrims.
“Religion and pilgrimages are a personal exercise, and the only time that the government shall play is to regulate the processes to make them orderly.
“All military and police personnel performing non-essential duties, as well as those who retired in the last ten years, are hereby recalled to active duty and shall be sent to Plateau, Zamfara, Niger, Benue and other security hotspots to end the carnage in those places and ensure that there is security of life and property for all Nigerians.
“Finally, the Federal Government, under my leadership, shall operate under a low profile, and any overt or covert acts of exhibition of wealth are not to be tolerated and shall be met with punitive measures.
“If the President’s New Year’s message had taken steps along the lines above, then he would have become a national hero and disarmed all his political opponents, as well as mobilised the nation behind him. But it is not too late,” he added.
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